Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2022. - Tonight ` what becomes of the broken-parted? Hidden tracking devices uncover where broken appliances end up. - It's as if they'd created this little compartment just for our trackers. We wanna find out what happens to then when you've taken them back to the shop. - And no love lost here ` how to protect yourself from sophisticated romance scams. - And, of course, these scams aren't coming to a phone near you soon ` they're already here. - But first, they wanted more living room, but what they got was empty space ` the mystery of the missing cabins. - Something's seriously wrong here. - We've heard so many excuses. - I'm not quite sure of the word 'prefab', but I'm pretty sure that's not it. - Tena koutou katoa. Welcome to the show. This next story has been growing like the price of cheese. - That's right. We started with one, then two, and now we're up to a dozen complaints. - A dozen people waiting for cabins. They've ordered them for extra space; what they got was empty space. Here's Kaitlin. - Backyards as empty as a company's promises. - We've heard so many excuses. We've been told so many days and dates that they were coming, and nothing. - He just kept saying, 'I've got a builder starting next week. I've got a builder starting next week.' - Not one, not two, but 11 customers coming to Fair Go, saying they didn't get the cabins they paid for. It's a full house here in Hokitika. - What do cows say? - Moo! - Nikita just managing to squeeze six kids and her mum into the space. - Look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look! - (GIGGLES) - So, how do you make it work? - There's just lots in a bedroom. (CHUCKLES) You know, like, two little ones are with us. And then the two older ones and our one boy sharing, um, and then my mum and our other daughter in a room. - Then she spotted a solution ` these cosy cabins for sale on Facebook. - They looked awesome. - Not just to her eyes, but to Kate in Westport, who needed a place to put up her parents. - Our families are not on the coast, so instead of having to shuffle the kids around every time somebody comes to stay. - While Jeremy in Taranaki wanted to fill up the space with sound. - My partner is a music teacher and tutors music as well. - The cabins were being advertised by High Country Cabins. It says here kitset studio units and sheds are its speciality. There are other companies with similar names, but we're talking about the one run by Charlie Thompson, who was in the papers a few years back for offering shares in a 500-hectare station. - And I thought, 'Ooh, this guy looks like a good businessman,' and it was all a very positive article about what he was doing. - Charlie posted his cabin listings all over the country, like this one in Hastings just a month ago. Back in February, Nikita paid $16,000 for two kitset cabins. Charlie told her they'd be ready in six weeks. - Six weeks went, and nothing. We were told some guy was coming over with some timber, and that didn't happen. No one turned up. And then I got a hold of him, and he said that the guy was sick and that he'd be over the next day ` that didn't happen. - She asked for proof work was actually underway. - I've asked him for a picture, I've asked for the guy's number that was meant to come over the first time ` he hasn't provided anything. - Meanwhile, in Westport, Kate had paid a 5-grand deposit to have her cabin ready for the school holidays. - That was really important, because my parents were coming to stay to help us out. - She says she provided Charlie details of what they were after, including measurements and a floorplan. - We sent all of that through and just kept getting assurances that it was being prefabbed in his yard, and I don't know how to build a cabin, so I trusted that that's what was happening. - She started getting nervous when communication dropped off and no one showed up to make a start on the piles. - He never rang me and said, 'Hey, look, it's gonna be delayed,' or 'We've got some problems,' or, 'I'm struggling with this,' or, 'The builder quit'. He never came forth with any of that information ` I had to pull it out of him every single time. - Just over a week out from when the cabin was supposed to be ready, Charlie asked Kate for the floorplans, again. - That was, like, 'No, something's seriously wrong here.' - Jeremy was having similar doubts. He might well have a cabin now, but he's had a helping hand. - We've been very lucky to have a local builder come to our aid ` they're going to hopefully have this lined and almost finished for us in the next week. - Strip that work back, and this is what Jeremy had to show for his $4000 deposit to High Country Cabins. - I'm not quite sure of the word 'prefab', but I'm pretty sure that's not it. - Unlike Kate and Nikita, Jeremy actually had two builders show up to his place. - The initial builder we had didn't actually know anything about the build ` he wasn't even aware initially that there is to be a mezzanine floor built in here. - Jeremy says the builder would show up for a couple of hours at a time, and then couldn't be contacted. Charlie sent another builder, who got a bit further, and then stopped work too. The build was supposed to be finished in four weeks. After three months, Jeremy and his partner asked Charlie for their money back, minus materials. - We've had estimates there's about $2000 worth of material here, so how about, um, you pay us $1000 back, you put $1000 in your pocket and, um, we just call an end to our business? - Charlie asked for Jeremy's bank details, but hasn't paid back a cent. He also agreed to refund Kate and Nikita, but they're still waiting. - It's just it's a lot of money,... and I feel like he... he hasn't just taken that from us ` he took it from our kids too. You know? Those cabins were for them, and we don't have that kind of money just to have nothing for it. - And Kate's had to spend thousands more on a temporary option to get by. - Lots of broken promises of, 'Yep, payment's gonna be in tonight' ` nothing happens; asking for confirmations of bank accounts, which I've given him several times, and then no refund shows, and there's just radio silence. - Fair Go has been hearing similar stories from around the country, including Danny and Gina in Lower Moutere, with this partially built cabin, despite Charlie telling them it was already built when they bought it. That was nearly a year ago. Charlie says Covid made transportation difficult and expensive, so he decided he would build the cabin on site. This is Maria and Michael's cabin in Alexandra. They paid $12,500 last October, which has got them frames, a floor and roof, but still no windows, doors or batts. Charlie says he's agreed to a refund, but that's news to them. And Jade in Dunedin still has nothing to show for her $14,000. She's also been waiting a year. Charlie says there was a delay on aluminium joinery and he'll deliver the cabin later this month. - And you still see him advertising. And that's the hardest bit is that he's still doing this to people, and he just treats them like an ATM is how it feels, to be honest. - Charlie has now refunded Kate and says he apologises and takes responsibility for the stress on customers. - It is regrettable that some of the timeframes for the cabin builds have been prolonged. The impact of Covid lockdowns and restrictions, staffing shortages and supply issues have played a significant part, alongside customers not wanting to proceed, due to their individual circumstances in these uncertain times. - If there'd just been some honest communication, this would never have come to this point with anyone. - Customers like Jeremy find it hard to believe that supplies and labour are the problem. He says he's been able to sort his own. - We went down to ITM, and they had the products delivered to us that day; the cladding took about a week in total. - Charlie says he's changed his business model to only supply kitsets and won't take on any more work until all current builds are complete, while other customers, like Jeremy, are leaving the final word to the Disputes Tribunal. - Hmm. And we've just heard that Charlie and Jeremy have reached a settlement. - E haere ake nei, coming up, the return journey ` we follow what happens after kitchen appliances are taken back to the retailer. - So many of these small appliances break anyway, and we wanna find out what happens when you take them back to the shop. - The manufacturers don't want you to repair their kit ` they actively make it hard. - And sorry, folks ` that new admirer might be after your pennies, not your personality. - But the number I stored is you, not Ben. Aw, teardrop emoji. - These are done by bad, nasty people online, who are doing bad things. - Kia ora, friends. Welcome back to the show. Now, it's fair to say you return a broken appliance to the shop, what do you want? You want your money back, you want a replacement ` you don't really care what happens next. - No, that's true, but armed with sophisticated surveillance gear, Consumer NZ undertook a special project to follow the return journey. Here's Gill. - Whether it's blending... or boiling or toasting your bread, when it comes to appliances,... - I have a new air fryer. - A microwave, kettle, toaster. - ...we can't get enough. - A coffee maker and a really nice kettle. - Toaster, toasted-sandwich maker, probably a slow cooker. - But all good things come to an end. - I had a bread maker that kind of carked it. - And some sooner than others. - Replaced the toaster, I've replaced the kettle. - Question is, what happens to the broken-parted? - Well, I'm hoping they get recycled. - We know that everything's been built to barely survive. - To get to the bottom of it, we joined Paul Smith down in his Wellington basement. He's taking brand-new mixers and breaking them himself. - So many of these small appliances break anyway, and we wanna find what happens to them when you take them back to the shop. - He's an investigator for Consumer NZ. His covert project is addressing the right-to-repair issue. He hopes it will get people thinking about sustainability and what this means for our households. Do you think that is easy to fix? Like, could you fix it? - Yeah, absolutely. So, all I've done is taken a wire off. - Before reassembling, he fits a GPS tracker. - It's as if they've created this little compartment just for our trackers. - It means they can follow the appliance to it's final resting place ` same treatment for four different brands; Kmart's own brand for $75, Living & Co from The Warehouse ` $80, Breville from Briscoes ` $450, Kenwood from Farmers ` $740, $520 on sale. Paul set off to return them ` Project Mixer was underway. The drop-off was step one, starting with Kmart and The Warehouse, where... - They didn't even open the box to check there was a mixer inside. - No one checked at Briscoes either, but at Farmers... - Actually took it out the box, turned it on to make sure that it had the fault that I said it had. - Finally. - Finally, somebody checked. (CHUCKLES) - Which takes us to step two ` tracking the appliance wherever it went. Paul and co-investigator Tom were glued to the screen. - No work happened for about those first three days. Paul would just run over to my desk. He'd be, like, 'Hey, look, it's moving! It's moving!' The Kmart and Warehouse ones were the first to go. - It took hardly any time to reach their very final place of rest. - No one opened the box, no one looked at them ` they were just buried in a big hole in the ground. - Not that they should have been surprised. - When returned it to Kmart, we asked the girl, 'Hey, so what's gonna happen to this now?' She was very clear ` 'I'm gonna take it out the back and chuck it in the bin.' - Thankfully, it was a different story for the pricier mixers. - They hung around in the store for about four or five weeks, both of them. - Then the trackers got going, both of them winding their way to Auckland. - Breville mixer from Briscoes went straight to Appliance Outlet ` they refurbish and repair and resell appliances. And we watched these mixers go back on sale on their website. And they were selling them for $150. Full price, they're $450, so somebody could get a real bargain by picking up a refurbished mixer with a full warranty for $150. - The Farmers Kenwood mixer stopped at this place at Auckland Airport. They hoped it was headed overseas for repair. - But within about a week, and it ended up at a place called Computer Recycling. No real interest in refurbishing and reselling ` they were just going to shred the appliance and send the metal for recycling. - Fair Go wanted to double-check a repair was possible, so I took one of the cheaper mixers with an identical problem,... So here it is. ...to see if it really was an easy fix. - This is gonna be testing me to the limit. - Richard Ford helps out at Wellington's repair cafes. - We get a huge variety of things. - He has no idea what the problem is, but says modern appliances are always a tougher task then ones from years gone by. - Smaller, thinner plastic that breaks easily. The switches aren't the same quality. Manufacturers don't want you to repair their kit. They actively make it hard. So they put unusual screw heads inside the machine. Oh, there's the problem. So inside here, if you look, there's two cables. This is the main power. This blue jack here should be plugged into the power supply. As soon as I plug that in there, I reckon it's gonna work. We see this quite a lot, especially with things that vibrate. - And just to test it... - (WHIRRING) - There we go. - (WHIRRING) - So it sounds like it's working. - So on a scale one to 10, how easy was that? - 0.5. (CHUCKLES) That's the best case, cos it didn't take any time at all. - So, given that, what do you think of the fact that that's all that was wrong with it, and yet they sent it straight to the landfill? - That's a real problem is this has value ` let's not throw it away, let's keep them going for a few more years yet. The fact that it's never been used, that's insane that they were gonna throw it away. - Back to Project Mixer, where it's time for... - Step three ` interrogation? - Yeah, exactly. So once we knew where everything was gonna end up, we got in touch with the companies. - Fair Go did too. Bear in mind, a product returned under warranty becomes the property of the supplier, so the De'Longhi Group ANZ, which owns Kenwood, says products go to a recycling initiative operating in New Zealand, which is what we saw. it adds it's repair-and-resale programme, currently operating in Australia, will expand to New Zealand in the next 12 months. And top marks to the Briscoes/Breville partnership. Briscoes says it encourages its suppliers to repair and resell through a third party. And that's what happened here. The Warehouse says it works with a third-party return centre, that evaluates whether products should be repaired, recycled or dumped. But it admits that didn't happen to this mixer. It says it will take this learning and keep improving. And from Kmart? Not a peep. The Project Mixer investigators are unimpressed, but not too surprised. - Realistically, in an $80 mixer, even if it's an easy repair, it's never gonna be repaired. There's no margin in it, right? But I feel like they should build in the cost of recycling, as part of just, like, kind of, social responsibility. - And if you want to avoid your next appliance getting dumped before its time? - I would say don't go to The Warehouse and Kmart and buy cheap mixers, they're just gonna end up in landfill; go to somewhere like Appliance Outlet and buy a good mixer that's been refurbished, because you're stopping other products being thrown away one, and you're a getting a better mixer for it. - Wouldn't it be great to see appliances that are just really easy to repair? So the first step is not landfill; it's let's have a look what's inside. I think we can all play a part in that. - I reckon. I think you're on to something there. E haere ake nei, coming up ` it's bad enough they steal your heart, but look out, friends, they're after your money too. Next ` we're gonna look at romance scams. - We see people losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as, you know, a lot of personal reputational damage as well. - And we have a special guest in the studio. - Come here. Come on. Sit. - Sit down. - Hey, Stanley. - Sit. Sit. Sit. Good boy. - We'll see you soon. - Shake. Hello. - Hello. Nau mai ano. Just when you thought you were on top of all the jargon, here's another one for you ` crypto-rom. - So it's a romcom about cryptocurrency? - Nearly. (LAUGHS) - OK. You'll wanna know about this one ` it's the latest type of scam out there. - That's right. Romance scams are on the up ` they've duped 53 New Zealanders so far this year, who've lost a total of $2 million. And if you don't want to join them, watch Garth. - (DEAN MARTIN'S 'THAT'S AMORE') - Forget your romcoms ` your romantic comedies; it's the romantic tragedies we're here to warn you about. Yes, romance scams. Last year in the US, these stories had unhappy endings for 56,000 Americans ` altogether they lost more three-quarters of a billion dollars. And, of course, those scams aren't just coming to a phone near you soon ` they're already here. Aren't they, 'Irene'? - Hi, Ben. It's Irene. I haven't see you for years. I'm going on a trip to New Zealand. - This WhatsApp scammer had a crack at flirting with me. Come on, Irene! - But the number I stored is you, not Ben. - Aw, a teardrop emoji. - It's an old story ` a chance encounter; where will it lead? - This may be my mistake, but now we are talking... - This was a whirlwind. Maybe it's fate. Can I know you? I nipped this one in the bud, but some can spend months letting fraudsters soften them up. - These are personal attacks, so these are done by bad, nasty people online, who are doing bad things. - CERT NZ gets a romance-scam complaint from the public every other day. - We see people losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as, you know, a lot of personal reputational damage as well. - Irene might be up to a new trick they're calling CryptoRom. That's where this new admirer of yours recommends an exciting, risky way to make money, if you'll just check out this cryptocurrency app they've been using. Far from practising safe investment, you'll be totally unprotected, probably downloading something that isn't from one of the mainstream app stores. CryptoRom is catching out more in their 20s and 30s. Cybersecurity company Sophos sees it a lot. - When it comes to the younger generation, things like bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, they're all the rage, and they think that if something goes wrong, there's a magical undo button that can just, you know, reverse all the ill effects of whatever they did online. They get drawn in to depositing this money into a scam account, and then the scammer will say, 'Well, 'actually, you've got some gains,' and they can, you know, fake it with, like, you know, illegitimate apps, but to withdraw it, you've gotta pay a bit of a tax, it's an $800, you know, tax, so they give them more money, then all of a sudden they disappear. - Ghosting is when that special someone just stops responding. It can leave anyone feeling foolish. - I think there were some figures released recently by an American agency that said they believe about 5% of these incidents are reported. I'd say it's probably 5% to 10% in New Zealand. - That is a lot of people left broke and broken-hearted, which you can avoid if you... question any random contact online, even if they know your name. Avoid paying money to anyone you've not met. It's fun to have a secret admirer, but run things past friends and family, rather than keep it to yourself. Check with places like CERT NZ or Netsafe, because they know all the scams, old and new. So you can have a happy ever after. - Now, just to confirm what you're all wondering at home, ladies, Garth is well and truly married, very happy, even though there has been a lot of romance dating sites lately. - Yeah, and about Irene ` of course, there is no Irene; that is a stock image that is startlingly similar to the many ones Garth's received, but there could, of course, be anyone behind it, trying to get your money. - Stanley. Schmackos. Sit down. Sit. - And from dirty tactics ` hello ` - Good boy. - ...to dirty dogs,... - Coming up on Fair Go ` who can give Stanley a haircut? - Here we go. Can anyone do it? Can I do it? - No. No, Haydo. - Sure, I can. Hey, Stanley, what do you reckon? A little trim-up? - Who's allowed to pamper your pooch? - You can do a lot of mental harm to dogs as well as the physical. There's so many things that can go wrong. - This industry is poorly regulated, so anyone could just decide to set up a dog-grooming business ` they don't necessarily have to have a certain set level of qualifications or experience. - Right, that's it from us. - Stanley, sit down. - One of my co-hosts is ready to leave, and he just licked me on the hand. But you can catch us on TVNZ On Demand whenever you want. - That's it ` we'd love to hear from you, dog owners, cat owners, whoever. Except you, Irene. - You can stay away. - You can. We're on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. You can go to our webpage ` tvnz.co.nz You can email us ` fairgo@tvnz.co.nz or write to us ` PO Box 3819, Auckland 1140. - Thank you for watching. One of us needs walkies. Maybe it's Stan; maybe it's not. - Until next week,... - ...BOTH: Pomarie. - Stanley. Come here. Come on.